Friday, July 15, 2005

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- P-Diddy, "Special Delivery" (Remix), We Invented the Remix

(...)

Rove Learned CIA Agent's Name From Novak

By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer 7 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Chief presidential adviser Karl Rove testified to a grand jury that he talked with two journalists before they divulged the identity of an undercover CIA officer but that he originally learned about the operative from the news media and not government sources, according to a person briefed on the testimony.

The person, who works in the legal profession and spoke only on condition of anonymity because of grand jury secrecy, told The Associated Press that Rove testified last year that he remembers specifically being told by columnist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame, the wife of a harsh Iraq war critic, worked for the CIA.

Rove testified that Novak originally called him the Tuesday before Plame's identity was revealed in July 2003 to discuss another story.

The conversation eventually turned to Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who was strongly criticizing the Bush administration's use of faulty intelligence to justify the war in Iraq, the person said.

Rove testified that Novak told him he planned to report in a weekend column that Plame had worked for the CIA, and the circumstances on how her husband traveled to Africa to check bogus claims that Iraq was trying to buy nuclear materials in Niger, according to the source.

Novak's column, citing two Bush administration officials, appeared six days later, touching off a political firestorm and leading to a federal criminal investigation into who leaked Plame's undercover identity. That probe has ensnared presidential aides and reporters in a two-year legal battle.

Rove told the grand jury that by the time Novak had called him, he believes he had similar information about Wilson's wife from another member of the news media but he could not recall which reporter had told him about it first, the person said.

When Novak inquired about Wilson's wife working for the CIA, Rove indicated he had heard something like that, according to the source's recounting of the grand jury testimony.

Rove told the grand jury that three days later, he had a phone conversation with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper and — in an effort to discredit some of Wilson's allegations — informally told Cooper that he believed Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, though he never used her name, the source said.

An e-mail Cooper recently provided the grand jury shows Cooper reported to his magazine bosses that Rove had described Wilson's wife in a confidential conversation as someone who "apparently works" at the CIA.

Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney, said Thursday his client truthfully testified to the grand jury and expected to be exonerated.

"Karl provided all pertinent information to prosecutors a long time ago," Luskin said. "And prosecutors confirmed when he testified most recently in October 2004 that he is not a target of the investigation."

In an interview on CNN earlier Thursday before the latest revelation, Wilson kept up his criticism of the White House, saying Rove's conduct was an "outrageous abuse of power ... certainly worthy of frog-marching out of the White House."

Wilson also said "my wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity."

In an interview Friday, Wilson said his comment was meant to reflect that his wife lost her ability to be a covert agent because of the leak, not that she had stopped working for the CIA beforehand.

His wife's "ability to do the job she's been doing for close to 20 years ceased from the minute Novak's article appeared; she ceased being a clandestine officer," he said.

Federal law prohibits government officials from divulging the identity of an undercover intelligence officer. But in order to bring charges, prosecutors must prove the official knew the officer was covert and nonetheless knowingly outed his or her identity.

Rove's conversations with Novak and Cooper took place just days after Wilson suggested in a New York Times opinion piece that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.

Democrats continued this week to sharpen their attacks, accusing Rove of compromising a CIA operative's identity just to discredit the political criticism of her husband.

On Thursday, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada pressed for legislation to strip Rove of his clearance for classified information, which he said President Bush should have done already. Instead, Reid said, the Bush administration has attacked its critics: "This is what is known as a cover-up. This is an abuse of power."

Across the Capitol, Rep. Rush Holt (news, bio, voting record), D-N.J., introduced legislation for an investigation that would compel senior administration officials to turn over records relating to the Plame disclosure.

Pressed to explain its statements of two years ago that Rove wasn't involved in the leak, the White House refused to do so this week.

"If I were to get into discussing this, I would be getting into discussing an investigation that continues and could be prejudging the outcome of the investigation," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

24 Comments:

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Hello, I started suffering from a blogging deficit disorder because Hurricane Wilma came crashing through our lives in Florida and stopped me from surfing a few hours a day. I spend most of my time looking for Boca Raton Realtor information that I can use in my site ... but I like to take a break every now and then and hit the "next url" link at the top of the page. Which brought me to your blog ... and I just wanted to thank you for the look at something other than hurricane damage and my own business. Thanks.

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Hi. I guess blogging can get a little addictive ... we get to peek into so many lives and minds from such a great distance. After suffering through the tree-busting, home-wreaking destruction of Hurricane Wilma, it’s nice to read things like your blog. Even though I really am searching for Boca Raton Agent information, which I might be able to use in my site ... thanks for the read, which I enjoyed.

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Visited so many blogs today my eyes are spinning, although sometimes I think that’s better than working on my Boca Raton real estate site. At least your blog stopped me for a while … enjoyable read … although I don’t necessarily understand it all. Guess I’ll hit the "next url" link one more time. This blogging thing is a little addictive, isn’t it?

Visited so many blogs today my eyes are spinning, although sometimes I think that’s better than working on my Boca Raton real estate site. At least your blog stopped me for a while … enjoyable read … although I don’t necessarily understand it all. Guess I’ll hit the "next url" link one more time. This blogging thing is a little addictive, isn’t it?

Most of us agree that “spamming” is a growing problem on the internet. But now it looks as if the spammers are shooting themselves in the foot. They seem to be committing mass suicide. Because, by using spamming software to “automate” their competitive efforts, they are raising their hand in the cyber classroom and identifying themselves as … well … spammers worthy of internet contempt.

Many of these “spammers” are small-time entrepreneurs searching for a spotlight in a medium (the internet) which is being bought and paid for by Big Guys with oversized ad budgets. In other words, the small-time entrepreneurs see the “spamming software” as a way of competing with the swollen internet expenditures of Fortune 500 companies.

Now comes news that it may not be working for the little guys. They may be making themselves even smaller by identifying themselves to the large search engines such as Google, AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Teoma and Yahoo!

Let me share with you my own experience with Blog Submitter Pro V.Search. It’s a popular, heavily-marketed “spam machine” which posts comments to blogs, either automatically or semi-automatically, depending on a user’s settings. And, yes, I bought it because I am one of those small-time entrepreneurs looking for attention in a cyberspace bought and paid for by Big Guys with oversized ad budgets.

On Nov 8th 2005, I began pointing Blog Submitter software to one of my real estate sites. At the time, my site “ranking” on major search engines was reasonable, but not great.

I have run Blog Submitter Pro V.Search quite a bit between then and now. Some glitches appeared, but overall I felt it was an OK piece of software … or at least a clever one. The fact that it would often post repeatedly to the same blog was a serious problem, but I still felt the program was delivering a shot at cyber stardom. My blogger “comments” were well thought out, and they posted accurately. They were innocuous and unobtrusive messages. An example or two of my typical comments:

Hi. After suffering through the tree-busting, home-wreaking destruction of Hurricane Wilma, and being away from the Internet for well over a week because Adelphia broadband blew away in the wind, it’s nice to read things like your blog. Even though I really am searching for information on Boca Raton Real Estate, which I might be able to use on my Boca Raton real estate site ... thanks for the read.

Or this:

Blog-skipping is the latest cybersport … sort of like skipping stones across the water … see how many blogs you can ripple through before your fingers stiffen up. It’s an amusing break from working on my Boca Raton real estate site . Your blog has slowed me down a little, because I enjoyed the read. Still … off I cyberskip to the next site :o)

I had a minimum of ten such messages whenever I turned on Blog Submitter Pro V.Search, validated by ten different sets of “credentials” (blogs I have at Blogger.com, proving I’m a fellow blogger and kindred internet spirit).

My messages were posted on thousands of blog sites, and the sites were then automatically “pinged” to let the search engines know a post had been made. Then the search engine would come and look at the post and it would be “fooled” into thinking that the site which the post pointed to – my site – was a worthwhile, busy entity in cyberspace.

The first hint of a letdown came when three of my credentials (blogs I have at Blogger.com) were tagged by the Blogger folks as “SPAM BLOGS” … a DIRECT result of using Blog Submitter Pro V.Search software.

Didn’t take them long to figure out I was a dreaded spammer. And that, sadly, turns out to be the GOOD news.

I attribute this damage directly to the use of Blog Submitter Pro V.Search software. I expect my rankings on Google and Teoma to slide on the next update from their search engines (which seems to happen about once a month). I am sure the increase in MSN will also seriously reverse.

To say I am disappointed in the software would be a gross understatement. I am only glad that I had the foresight to use it on a single website, and not on all of my websites. I will continue to use it on the damaged site to see if it continues to hurt, rather than help. And I will report back to anyone interested. The site in question is http://www.bocasite.com.

My e-mail is temple@bocasite.com.

Good luck, folks. I think, with this software, we are well on the road to identifying and, ultimately, watching the suicide of a lot of spammers. And I intend to use the software itself to propagate the message. Poetic justice rules. Spread the word.

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